Heavy tank (Red Alert 1)
The Heavy tank is the 's main battle tank in Red Alert 1. While the tank is purely fictional, the tank resembles a T-80U in cut scenes, albeit with a twin-barreled main armament. Background This tank epitomizes the basic approach of the Red Army: overwhelming firepower. They are stronger than the Allied tanks but more expensive to produce, and slower. Soviet commanders can even the odds by constructing more than one War Factory in order to produce Heavy tanks faster, thus allowing them to overwhelm Allied tanks (this of course requires a lot of resources). Legacy The Heavy tank was replaced by the Rhino heavy tank by the . Game Unit The basic tank of the Soviets, the Heavy Tank is equipped with twin 105mm cannons, giving it twice the punch of the nearest Allied equivalent during initial contact, the Medium tank. It sacrifices movement speed and rate of fire for this bonus, but the net result still makes it a formidable opponent on the battlefield. Contrary to popular belief, the heavy tank does not deal twice the damage per second compared to the Medium Tank. Though it sports twin 105mm cannons, the medium tank sports a single 90mm cannon which shoots faster than the Heavy Tank's 105mm cannon while dealing the same damage. By the time it takes a medium tank to fire out 7 shots, a heavy tank has fired out 10. In one of the expansion missions a malfunctioning Chronosphere altered the weapons of units, causing its guns to discharge lightning instead. Trivia *Most cutscenes portray the heavy tank as a double-barreled T-80, although heavy tank's twin guns are shorter/smaller than the T-80's single main gun. *While it is a double-barreled tank, some cutscenes show it as having only a single barrel (resembling a normal T-80U, although the gun is noticeably smaller than that on the real-life T-80). This could be a developer oversight, or that the single-barreled versions were earlier models from which the twin-barreled version was developed; When the player first meets Georgi Kukov in the second Soviet mission, several single-barreled Soviet tanks are seen in the background, including one which strongly resembles a T-54. Another possibility is that they were developed as lower-cost variants of the double-barreled Heavy tank. *The in-game heavy tank sprite has a lot of resemblance to GDI's medium tank of Tiberian Dawn. In fact, the Allied medium tank, Soviet heavy tank, and GDI medium tank all use the same hull sprite in-game, but with different turret sprites. *In real life, a tank with a twin barrel armament of heavy guns in the main turret is impractical. A single large caliber gun already occupies much space in the turret, giving limited room for the crew instead to aim and fire. The only in-production tank with a double barrel armament in the turret was the Panzer I of Nazi Germany, but these were 2 × 7.92 mm MG13 machine guns. See Also *Medium tank (Red Alert 1) Assessment Pros *Stronger than the light and medium tank in terms of raw firepower and armor. *Quite speedy for a heavy tank. *Can crush infantry. *Powerful in numbers. *Cheaper and faster than a mammoth tank *Will win one-on-one fight against its light and medium tank counterparts. *The most powerful main battle tank in the game. Cons *The most expensive MBT ($950) *Not very effective against infantry, other than crushing *Vulnerable to anti-vehicles units *Vulnerable to air units. *Does not fare well against mammoth tank, unless purchased in larger numbers *Slower than light and medium tanks *Often outnumbered by the allied tanks due to they are made slower than even medium tanks Gallery File:RA1_Heavy_Tank_Render.png|Render File:Heavy_Tank.png|Urban camouflage render File:Heavy_Tank_single-barrel.jpg|Single-barrelled variant File:Heavy_Tank_destroyed_in_forest.png|Heavy Tank knocked out in the forest File:Red_Alert_-_Longbow_attacking_Heavy_Tank_-_colour.jpg|Heavy Tanks being attacked by Allied Longbows File:Barrels_exploding.jpg|A Soviet base under Allied bombardment. A single-barreled Heavy Tank is parked behind the guard tower. File:Heavy_tank_Red_Alert_1.JPG|Heavy tank in the view of binoculars File:RA1_Heavy_Tank_French_Icons.gif|Icon with French text File:RA1_Heavy_Tank_Russian_Icons.gif|Icon with Russian text File:RA1_Heavy_Tank_Textless_Icons.png|Icon with no text Videos File:Red_Alert_Radar_Raid|Cinematic render of single-barrelled variant File:C%26C_Red_Alert_-_Guy_Viewing_Tanks_Through_Binoculars|Cinematic render of double-barrelled variant Category:Red Alert 1 vehicles